Articoli con tag “GP Italia”

Q: Well done, mate. Kimi, you had the weight of the Italians on your side, the weight of Ferrari after Sebastian went out but the package just wasn’t quite quick enough to beat Lewis was it?

Kimi Raikkonen: I think it was quick enough but unfortunately our rear tyres went and it was a losing battle since that point. I tried but it was impossible in the end unfortunately. It’s far from ideal but this is what we got today and we did our maximum.

Q: You can take the positives from the weekend can’t you? First pole position in a long time and it shows that the fight is going to go all the way to try to beat this guy and try and help Sebastian?

KR: Yeah, I mean, for sure we tried, but if you look at the rear tyres, they gave up before the race ended but at least we take the second place and we keep fighting.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Frédéric Ferret – l’Equipe) A question to Kimi. Would you have pitted later would you have been blistering? And a question for Lewis: was it planned to pit later than the 21st lap? A question to both of you about pitting.

KR: Afterwards you can always fine-tune things, but it’s too late afterwards. I don’t think we did anything wrong. We just ran out of tyres in the end, simple as that. I don’t know. I mean, there’s no point to start thinking right now. This is what we got. Leave it and go forward.

Q: (Dániel Horváth– Racingline.hu) Lewis, an epic fight with Kimi. Would you miss him from the grid if he won’t be with us next year?

LH: Would I miss Kimi? I think it’s always a difficult question to say if you miss someone. I think the sport would naturally miss him, yeah. I made it no secret that before I even got to Formula One I was always playing… when I was playing the Playstation I was always Kimi in the McLaren, imagining that was me. And then I remember the first car at McLaren which was Kimi’s set-up and the suspension that he would use, which was… I remember it like it was yesterday. It was an amazing experience and it was cool because I think our driving style was kinda similar, which meant that I ended up being quite comfortable with the set-up that he used back then. So, y’know, he’s had an incredible career and it’s been a real honour to race against a great Finn such as him – but he looks like he’s just ice-cold. He’s just got plenty of years left in him. He’s not seeming to age. I don’t know what it is about Finnish people. I think it’s the sauna and the ice thing. Yeah.

Q: (Zsolt Godina – F1vilag.hu) Kimi, you said on the podium that ‘maybe next time.’ do you perhaps have any new information regarding the future? Do you have more options in F1 for next year other than Ferrari?

KR: There’s always going to be options. In life generally. It depends on what you want to do. It depends on a lot of things. So, we’ll see in the future what will happen and that’s about it.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) To Kimi and then Lewis. Kimi, Lewis’ victory today was a real team victory. Did you receive, you and Sebastian, any orientation before the start? You, for example, you locked the wheels at the wheels at the first chicane after the start, which could make a completely different story of the grand prix. And Lewis, you had incredible speed in the straight in this race. The reason is the new spec of the power unit you use in Spa or maybe the aero set-up you choose for Monza.

KR: No, I think we have very clear rules. I don’t see how my front locking changed the race. Unfortunately, we lock front tyres sometimes under braking and that’s what happened. Obviously always difficult after the start when they’re not exactly where they should be. These things happen. It wasn’t a big deal and I got out of it – so I don’t see how it changed the race somehow.

(Inaudible question)

KR: Like I said, we know what we can do, and what not.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, have you ever bigger support as you got today when leading for Ferrari?

KR: I have to say… obviously you cannot hear the crowd. In the end, when we get our trophies, you can see how many people (there are). You see at the end, when you look down the main straight, there’s a lot of support from the tifosi. Unfortunately we didn’t get the maximum, the best result today for all of us but this is how it goes and I’m sure they were cheering as much as we were trying. It was very nice to see.

KR: I think everybody as the right to do what they feel like but I don’t think it’s very nice. I don’t think it should happen but obviously it’s not my decision. It happens and that’s how life is but it’s not very nice.

Lewis Hamilton survived first-lap contact with Formula 1 title rival Sebastian Vettel to win the Italian Grand Prix by passing the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen late on.

Hamilton overtook Vettel around the outside into the second chicane on the opening lap, and Vettel ran wide, hit the Mercedes and spun to the back.

He charged through to finish fourth behind Valtteri Bottas, as a time penalty dropped Max Verstappen from the podium to fifth.

Poleman Raikkonen maintained the lead at the start despite pressure from Vettel and a lock-up into the first corner, before Hamilton drafted the Ferraris and attacked Vettel around the outside at the Roggia chicane.

Hamilton held his car level with the Ferrari, which drifted into the side of the Mercedes and spun.

Vettel dropped to the back and had to pit as he damaged his front wing in the contact as well, but was handed a silver lining thanks to a safety car.

That was because Brendon Hartley had pulled over on the right-hand side of the circuit seconds after the start, having been pincered on the run to the first corner and suffered a front-right breakage on his Toro Rosso.

Racing resumed on lap four, with Hamilton drafting Raikkonen at the restart and overtaking into the Rettifilo chicane before Raikkonen seized first place back with an immediate counter-attack at the Roggia.

For the rest of the opening stint Hamilton gradually drifted outside of DRS range, but Raikkonen’s lead never rose above two seconds before he stopped on lap 20 of the 53.

Mercedes was ready to receive Hamilton as well but instead the Briton did not pit and ran another eight laps, shipping five seconds to Raikkonen in that time.

However, Mercedes kept Bottas on track with the Finn fighting to overhaul Verstappen, who had just pitted, for third.

That meant Bottas was able to hold up Raikkonen, and within three laps of Hamilton pitting he was within DRS range of Raikkonen and on fresher rubber.

Bottas led until lap 36 before pitting, releasing Raikkonen and Hamilton to duke it out for the win.

Hamilton was closer than ever as they crossed the line to start the 45th lap. He only drew alongside the Ferrari as they approached the braking zone but nailed Raikkonen around the outside.

Raikkonen tried to fight back into the Roggia chicane but Hamilton held the place and quickly broke clear as Raikkonen nursed a blister on his left-rear tyre.

That situation was so "critical", as Ferrari put it, for Raikkonen that he fell almost 9s behind Hamilton, whose victory extended his points lead in the championship to 30 as Vettel received a late gift by nicking fourth from Verstappen.

Bottas had used his fresh tyres to quickly wipe out Verstappen’s three-second lead and started to attack for the final podium place with 10 laps to go.

He got a great run on Verstappen and pulled to the outside when Verstappen moved under braking for the first chicane, which bumped Bottas onto the grass and sent him onto the run-off.

Verstappen was hit with a five-second time penalty, then defended aggressively from Bottas when his rival recovered a four-second deficit, telling his team he did not care that he was costing himself time to Vettel.

That allowed Vettel, who stopped again in his fightback to fifth on-track, to sneak within five seconds of the Red Bull and salvage another two points.

Romain Grosjean was almost unseen on television but came under immense pressure from the Racing Point Force Indias in the best-of-the-rest fight.

Grosjean just held on to claim sixth for Haas, with Esteban Ocon beating a charging Sergio Perez – who started 14th – to seventh.

Carlos Sainz Jr finished ninth for Renault, while Lance Stroll claimed only the second points finish of the year for Williams as he completed the top 10.

Two drivers joined Hartley in retirement over the grand prix. Fernando Alonso stopped his McLaren with an unconfirmed problem on lap 10, while running in the points, while Daniel Ricciardo pulled a smoking Red Bull over exiting the second chicane just before mid-distance.

Q: Kimi, we’ve just witnessed history, the fastest ever lap Formula 1 of Monza. How does it feel to get Ferrari a front-row lock-out?

Kimi Raikkonen: Obviously it’s great for tomorrow, but it’s only half the job done and I think it couldn’t be a better place to be on pole position. It’s our home grand prix, it’s in front of all the tifosi, so hopefully tomorrow everything goes smoothly and we end up in the same positions.

Q: Well, you’ve given these guys something to cheer about. Ultimately, they are the strong point Ferrari, aren’t they?

KR: They are, always. It doesn’t matter where we go around the world, but obviously here at our home grand prix it’s full of great tifosi. So hopefully tomorrow is as good as today.

Q: Kimi, it all came together for you at the end in Q3. Just talk us through that final lap and what it feels like to be back on top here at Monza, of all places?

KR: If you need to choose, for our team it’s probably the best place to taker the pole position. Obviously we’ve been close a few times but it never really went right in the end. It’s been a bit tricky, the second chicane, the whole day. The last run was pretty decent, let’s put it this way, enough for pole position. Obviously there were a lot of games – who is going first, getting tows and this and that. But in the end, there was a train of cars and that’s enough. The car’s been working well; obviously conditions have been a little tricky but nevertheless I don’t think we’ve changed the car at all since the first runs really. It all seems to be running pretty smoothly so far, so hopefully tomorrow it’s a similar situation.

Q: Kimi, you got quite a reception on your slow down lap as well?

KR: I don’t hear them. Obviously we know that we have a lot of fans, a lot of tifosi here, so I think being one and two is great but like I said it’s only half job done, so tomorrow is another important part, so hopefully we can give them another great result.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Kimi, you mentioned the near-misses you’ve had in qualifying this year. How important was it to end that here and was it a relief in any way to get that monkey off your back?

KR: Not really. It’s not my first one. If this would be the first one then of course it’s different but we keep trying always and sometimes it works out, sometimes not. It’s not as easy as it probably looks on TV, looking on the screens. Yeah. Today, I think the whole weekend has been working pretty well with everything. The conditions have been changing a little bit but nevertheless I was close. After the practice, we knew that there was three cars, one of them was going to get it and today it was me. Happy about it but it doesn’t really change anything. Tomorrow is always the main job to done.

Q: (Joe van Burik – Autocar.nl) To follow up on that question to the Ferrari drivers. Exactly one year ago you seemed to be in a similar position looking at the championship standings. Are you confident you can keep up the momentum now going to the end of the season or has anything changed compared to last year?

KR: A lot of things have changed since a year ago but I think the aim is always the same. It doesn’t matter which team you are in, which year it is. Obviously, we want to win. It’s simple as that. What will happen at the end of the season and the end of the championship, nobody knows. We can only do our best as a team and, yeah, work as hard as we can. Is that enough? Time will tell. That’s the aim. I will not start guessing what will happen.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, it’s very difficult to tell from your emotions, but was that the greatest feeling you have ever had after qualifying? Putting Ferrari on pole?

KR: I think I have 17 times before a similar story. This is a special place, for sure, to get the pole position in our home Grand Prix, in front of all the fans. But it isn’t any different to the other ones, in many ways. It’s good today, hopefully tomorrow is another good day.

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) To the Ferrari drivers, having to fight your teammate at the first corner, does it change your mindset compared to the Mercedes?.

KR: No different than any other race really. Obviously we know, as a team, we can race but we obviously need to be careful with each other but I don’t see how it changes to anybody. I don’t think anybody will purposely take a stupid amount of risk to damage somebody else’s car and your’s at the same time. Same story.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel set the pace in final practice for the Italian Grand Prix, but Formula 1 title rival Lewis Hamilton was less than a tenth slower ahead of qualifying.

Hamilton held a narrow edge in the early part of the session, before Vettel and his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen improved, but the Mercedes driver was able to split the Ferraris on his final runs.

The top three was covered by just 0.173s around the Monza circuit going into this afternoon’s qualifying session.

Early-morning rain was replaced by sunshine and the track was almost completely dry by the time FP3 started, although there were reports of minor damp spots under the trees in the middle of the circuit.

As lap times improved Raikkonen hit the front on a 1m21.399s as the frontrunners conducted their first qualifying simulations on supersoft tyres.

Hamilton then managed to sneak ahead of Raikkonen by 0.007s despite a slower middle sector.

Vettel failed to challenge after flat-spotting his front-left tyre with a big lock-up into the first chicane, but hit the front when the second and final batch of runs on fresh supersofts took place in the final 20 minutes.

He leapt to the top on his first flying lap on fresh rubber, a 1m21.035s, then improved massively on the second attempt to a 1m20.509s.

Raikkonen made it a Ferrari one-two as he posted the fastest final sector to lap 0.173s slower in response.

Hamilton then split the Ferraris with a 1m20.590s to wind up just 0.081s slower than Vettel, who Hamilton leads in the championship by 17 points

Valtteri Bottas was adrift of the lead trio in the second Mercedes, lapping six-tenths off the pace and closer to the Red Bull of Max Verstappen in fifth.

Charles Leclerc finished the session ninth in a Sauber that has a fixed rear wing following its DRS dramas on Friday, with Romian Grosjean completing the top 10 in the second Haas despite hitting traffic on his final runs.

Leclerc’s team-mate Marcus Ericsson was a busy man as he bid to make up for the track time he lost thanks to his massive DRS-induced shunt in second practice.

Ericsson completed 25 laps, more than anyone else, on his way to the 16th-fastest time, but did not suffer any further problems thanks to Sauber’s fix.

But the session did include a further DRS drama, as Nico Hulkenberg returned to his Renault garage with the DRS still activated on his car.

That proved the end of his session as the team investigated the cause.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time in Friday’s second free practice for the Italian Grand Prix after Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson survived a high-speed crash.

Ericsson’s shunt happened just two minutes into the session at the start of his first flying lap, with his Sauber car snapping left when he hit the brakes on the high-speed approach to Turn 1 after the DRS failed to close.

This pitched Ericsson’s car head on into the barriers, with the car then launched into a series of rolls while spinning down the track.

The car came to rest the right way up and Ericsson was able to get out before being taken to the medical centre and then returning to the Sauber garage after being given the all-clear.

The accident triggered a lengthy red flag for the wreckage to be cleared up and the barrier to be repaired, eventually resuming after a 20-minute delay.

With the session effectively reduced to 68 minutes, Ferrari soon took control up front with Vettel setting a time of 1m21.716s on supersofts to head soft-shod team-mate Kimi Raikkonen by 0.157s.

Lewis Hamilton was two-tenths off the pace at this stage on softs, which included on off track-moment when he cut the second chicane.

When drivers switched onto their qualifying simulations, all were able to complete multiple laps on supersofts.

While Vettel was forced to abandon his first lap after running wide at the Parabolica, team-mate Kimi Raikkonen hit the front with a lap of 1m21.375s.

Vettel then improved on his third push lap to go second, then on his fourth attempt he posted a 1m21.105s to seal top spot – 0.270s faster than Raikkonen.

But his attempt to squeeze one more fast lap out came to nothing when the rear stepped out on entry to the Parabolica, sending him spinning through the gravel.

Vettel kept the car out of the barrier and was able to return to the pits – returning to the track with 12 minutes remaining.

Hamilton was third fastest, just 0.017s behind Raikkonen, with Valtteri Bottas a further four tenths back.

Red Bull pairing Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were fifth and sixth, once again not in touch with the Ferrari and Mercedes drivers.

The Racing Point Force Indias of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez were best of the rest, with the former lapping 1.825s off the pace and just 0.012s quicker than his team-mate.

Charles Leclerc claimed ninth place with his late qualifying simulation run after his session was delayed by similar DRS problems to those suffered by Ericsson.

Leclerc went out twice after the restart to conduct DRS tests but returned to the pits after the rear wing did not shut, but the system did work successfully in the closing stages of the session.

Sergio Perez set the pace in opening practice for the Italian Grand Prix as heavy rain early on Friday led to a jumbled order in FP1 at Monza.

Racing Point Force India driver Perez ousted Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen from top spot on his final lap of the session, with Esteban Ocon third for the team that was effectively reincarnated last weekend in Belgium.

The late improvements stopped Brendon Hartley’s Toro Rosso-Honda being a surprise pacesetter in FP1, which started in very wet conditions and did not quite dry enough for slick tyres at the end.

Despite heavy rain in the morning and the cancellation of the GP3 practice session, the 90-minute F1 session began on time.

Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg parked their cars at the end of the pitlane several minutes before the start, and were the first to hit the soaking track.

The first 15 minutes or so featured sporadic running on full-wet tyres, before some cars started to sample intermediate rubber.

Times tumbled as the conditions improved, with Hulkenberg, Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz Jr and Lewis Hamilton hitting the top of the pile before the halfway point of the session.

Valtteri Bottas usurped Mercedes team-mate Hamilton almost exactly at the 45-minute mark, then Red Bull’s Max Verstappen hit the front for the first time.

The Dutchman should have gone quickest earlier in the session but spun exiting the Parabolica on a flying lap.

His 1m35.665s on a drying track kept him fastest until just before the end of the session.

Hartley jumped to top spot in the closing minutes with a 1m35.024s and briefly headed a Toro Rosso-Honda one-two as team-mate Pierre Gasly lapped four tenths slower.

Ricciardo then split the Toro Rossos with a 1m35.207s, before Raikkonen, Ocon and Perez demoted Hartley with even later improvements.

Raikkonen set two personal bests in a row but his 1m34.550s was beaten by Perez on the Mexican’s final lap of the session.

Ocon also improved on his last effort to lap within half a tenth of Raikkonen.

The Red Bull-backed quartet of Hartley, Ricciardo, Gasly and Verstappen were next up, with Sainz, Hulkenberg and Bottas completing the top 10.

Championship contenders Hamilton and Vettel were 11th and 17th respectively after only completing 10 laps between them.

The slippery conditions caught out several drivers, but most only suffered a time-consuming trip through the run-off, or gravel in Ricciardo’s case when he ran wide exiting the second Lesmo.

Raikkonen was a regular visitor to the escape road at the Roggia chicane. He locked up and slid wide several times at the corner that kicks off the middle sector but settled down when the track dried.

Kimi Raikkonen’s future at Ferrari has been much talked about this year, with the Finn’s contract at the Scuderia set to expire at the end of the season. But the 38-year-old believes he is still delivering his highest potential – and the statistics back him up, too…

Despite being the oldest driver on the grid, Raikkonen has perhaps proved he has plenty more to give in F1. This year, he has played a vital part in Ferrari’s challenge for world championship glory, with his team narrowly trailing Mercedes in both standings.

The Finn has delivered eight podiums for Ferrari so far in 2018, an impressive feat given it is more than he managed over the course of last season, and he currently sits third in the drivers’ standings behind leader Lewis Hamilton and his Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel.

Even when you go back to his 2007 championship-winning campaign – his one and only title triumph – the experienced racer had the same number of top-three finishes at the same stage of the season, and he has no doubt that this is one of his most consistent displays in the last decade.

“I don’t feel like I drive any differently than 10 years ago,” Raikkonen said. “I think I drive pretty well in my own books at least. That’s enough for me.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I could drive as well as I feel I should. That’s my tool to measure, and decide when it’s enough. Who knows? Maybe I’ll wake up one morning and I don’t know how to go fast anymore.

“I don’t think there is a time, it’s more feelings, how do you feel yourself doing – good or bad. People say the speed would disappear but to this day, I don’t feel it has disappeared for me.

“Like I say, maybe I wake up one morning and it’s not there anymore. It could be like that. But I don’t think you put a date on it – it’s more if you have it, if not, that’s it.”

So when we can expect to find out whether Raikkonen will remain with the Italian squad? Well the Finn, speaking ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, doesn’t think it will be this weekend.

“I don’t know. Obviously at some point, that’s for sure. But you probably can’t expect anything here, that’s what I’ve learned in the past. We’ll see. I don’t know."

He added: “You need to talk to the team. It’s not up to me. It’s not my decision in the end.”